the referee

I was walking around the Camp Zafar, the Afghan military compound, when I stumbled upon this "high stakes" volleyball match about to get underway between the All Star Italian Team and the Top Notch Afghan Squad. It also turned out that a referee of the utmost integrity was required to officiate this most important of matches, and who better to oblige than yours truly. It might have been a few years since I played volleyball but how difficult is it to watch a ball go back and forth over a net? The match turned out to be a little more heated than I anticipated, but then again the always emotional Italians were on one side and the rather volatile Afghans were on the other, so I guess taking all this into account the intensity of the confrontation should not have been much of a surprise. It turns out the Afghans ended up winning two games out of three with all three games being rather close, and the officiating was superlative I might add!